When Ghosts Sound like Birds

With the sixth mass extinction underway, this workshop delves into the field of queer death studies to reflect on and challenge normative perceptions of death, dying and mourning of othered nonhumans and humans. Carefully pulling these subjects closer from the ‘safe’ distance they usually occupy, this workshop attempts to weave a shroud that maps a constellation of the necro-political (Mbembe) mechanisms we are entangled in and our varying socio-ecological immediacies and implications to (invisibilised) death, so that we can begin to identify paths where grief and radical hope can become transformative.

This workshop draws from the work of queer death studies scholars, indigenous, decolonial and posthumanist theorists, ecologists and practitioners to scaffold the learning space. It also builds on the collaborative research from working with painter Eleni Odysseos on her exhibition ‘An Elegy for Coming Undone’ as its curator. Our conversations revolved around the socio-ecological, ethical and historical ties that connect Cypriot sericulture to seasons, soils, women’s labour and collectives, as well as rituals, spells and superstitions of ‘undoing’ and the killing of silkworms.

Learning with mountains*; recalibrating how we understand art and planet.

Contemporary art demonstrates a deep engagement with planetary issues and increasingly aims at shifting our attention to the natural world, ecology and the need to develop environmental consciousness. Since the 1970s, cultural practitioners have been active in trying to sensitise publics on issues related to the planet, climate change and the ecological commons– land, water and air. Through soft practices, the creation of collectives and communities, the production of eco-conscious artworks, and activist involvement in ecological movements, they have contributed to a recalibration of our relationship with the natural world. What is more, interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, scientists and environmental organisations have exposed the impact of colonialism, extractivism, ecocide, capitalism, neoliberalism, large scale agricultural production methods and systems of exploiting the environment.

Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies is a non-for-profit arts organisation, based in the village of Kapedes in rural Nicosia. It focuses on ecology, queer discourses and civic/social issues through art and culture. Celadon aims to create a collaborative framework, where cultural producers, artists and researchers come together to cultivate artistic and critical thinking, and ecological awareness. Its goal is to nurture a creative long lasting community, operating within an expanded network of exchanges with like-minded people and organisations, locally and internationally. It was instigated in 2024 by a small group of art historians/theoreticians and practitioners–Gabriel Koureas, Elena Parpa, Leontios Toumpouris and Evi Tselika.

* Aldo Leopold